Cicindela

Cicindela
Cicindela sexguttata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Suborder:	Adephaga
Family:	Carabidae
Subfamily:	Cicindelinae
Tribe:	Cicindelini
Genus:	Cicindela Linné, 1758
Type species
Cicindela campestris
Subgenera and species
Many (see List of Cicindela species).

Cicindela are generally brightly colored and metallic beetles, often with some sort of patterning of ivory or cream-colored markings. They are most abundant and diverse in habitats with sandy soil (though some prefer clay), and very often near bodies of water, even if seasonally transient; along river, sea and lake shores, on sand dunes, around playa lakebeds and on clay banks or woodland paths.

Systematics

The genus Cicindela is (in its broadest historical sense) the largest genus of tiger beetles, and they occur worldwide. The status of the genus is constantly in a state of flux, as various authorities on different continents have vastly different opinions about which (if any) of the dozens of subgenera traditionally recognized within the genus are deserving of being accorded status as independent genera. Moreover, this is one of the few insect taxa in which the rank of subspecies has traditionally been used repeatedly, and essentially no two classifications consistently treat the various members of the genus as to which are species and which are subspecies. Treated as a single genus, and even with a fairly conservative estimate of species, there are over 850 ^[1] (or even up to 2,300) species in the group^[2] (thus being almost equal to the subtribe Cicindelina W.Horn, 1908), with several thousand published names applied, collectively. The genus is divided into the following subgenera:

• Cicindela (Ancylia)
• Cicindela (Archidela)
• Cicindela (Austrocicindela)
• Cicindela (Brasiella)
• Cicindela (Calochroa)
• Cicindela (Cephalota)
• Cicindela (Chaetodera)
• Cicindela (Cicindela)
• Cicindela (Cicindelidia)
• Cicindela (Cylindera)
• Cicindela (Duponti)
• Cicindela (Euzona)
• Cicindela (Fulgoris)
• Cicindela (Habroscelimorpha)
• Cicindela (Hypaetha)
• Cicindela (Jansonia)
• Cicindela (Lophyridia)
• Cicindela (Macfarlandia)
• Cicindela (Micromentignatha)
• Cicindela (Myriochile)
• Cicindela (Neolaphyra)
• Cicindela (Opilidia)
• Cicindela (Pachydela)
• Cicindela (Pancallia)
• Cicindela (Rivacindela)
• Cicindela (Sophiodela)
• Cicindela (Tribonia)

For a list of species, see List of Cicindela species. The subgenus Cicindela (Cicindela), or Cicindela sensu stricto contains the following species:

Cicindela altaica Cicindela ancocisconiensis Cicindela arenicola Cicindela asiatica Cicindela bellissima Cicindela campestris Cicindela clypeata Cicindela coerulea Cicindela colombica Cicindela decemnotata Cicindela denverensis Cicindela depressula Cicindela dorsalis Cicindela duodecimguttata Cicindela fabrici Cicindela formosa Cicindela fulgida Cicindela gallica Cicindela gemmata Cicindela granulata Cicindela hirticollis Cicindela hybrida

Cicindela iberica Cicindela japana Cicindela kozhantschikovi Cicindela lacteola Cicindela lengi Cicindela lewisii Cicindela ligi Cicindela limbalis Cicindela limbata Cicindela longilabris Cicindela lusitanica Cicindela majalis Cicindela maroccana Cicindela nebraskana Cicindela nigrior Cicindela ohlone Cicindela oregona Cicindela parowana Cicindela patruela Cicindela plutonica Cicindela pugetana

Cicindela pulchra Cicindela purpurea Cicindela repanda Cicindela resplendens Cicindela restricta Cicindela sachalinensis Cicindela sahlbergii Cicindela scutellaris Cicindela sexguttata Cicindela soluta Cicindela songorica Cicindela splendida Cicindela sylvatica Cicindela sylvicola Cicindela tenuicincta Cicindela theatina Cicindela tranquebarica Cicindela transbaicalica Cicindela turkestanika Cicindela waynei

• 

  Cicindela aurofasciata

• 

  Cicindela campestris

• 

  Cicindela chinensis

• 

  Cicindela hybrida

• 

  Cicindela sexguttata

• 

  Cicindela sexguttata

• 

  Cicindela sylvicola

• 

  Cicindela nevadica lincolniana

• 

  Cicindela tranquebarica

References

• Northeastern Tiger Beetles: A Field Guide to Tiger Beetles of New England and Eastern Canada by Jonathan G. Leonard and Ross T. Bell. CRC Press (1999).
• Tiger Beetles of Alberta: Killers on the Clay, Stalkers on the Sand by John Acorn. University of Alberta Press, 2001.
• Tiger Beetles: The Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity of the Cicindelids by David L. Pearson and Alfried P. Vogler. Cornell University Press, 2001.
• A Field Guide to the Tiger Beetles of the United States and Canada by David L. Pearson, C. Barry Knisley and Charles J. Kazilek. Oxford University Press, 2005.

1. ^ Cardoso, A, Vogler, A.P. DNA taxonomy, phylogeny and Pleistocene diversification of the Cicindela hybrida species group (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae). Molecular Ecology (2005) 14, 3531–3546
2. ^ Proença,S.J.R,Cytogenetic variability in three species of the genus Cicindela (s.l.) (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae): Karyotypes and localization of 18S rDNA genes.Genetics and Molecular Biology, 27, 4, 555-560 (2004)